Denmark says wind energy too expensive

Denmark’s government abandoned plans to build five offshore wind power farms Friday amid fears the electricity produced there would become too expensive for Danish consumers.

“Since 2012 when we reached the political agreement, the cost of our renewable policy has increased dramatically,” said Climate Minister Lars Christian Lilleholt, a Liberal Party politician representing the country’s minority government, according to Reuters.

Denmark gets about 40 percent of its electricity from wind power and has a goal of getting half of its electricity from wind by 2020. But that goal has come up against a stronger prevailing headwind: high energy prices.

Danes have paid billions in taxes and fees to support wind turbines, which has caused electricity prices to skyrocket even as the price of actual electricity has decreased. Now, green taxes make up 66 percent of Danish electricity bills. Only 15 percent of electricity bills went to energy generation.

“The PSO tariff is expensive and ineffective. We have long believed that the rising costs are unsustainable and now it is abundantly clear that we have to find an alternative. Therefore the government is ready for a showdown over the PSO levy,” Tax Minister Karsten Lauritzen said Tuesday.

Danish politicians still want the country to be completely independent of fossil fuels by 2050 as part of their effort to combat global warming, but ratcheting down green energy taxes means they’ll have to find other ways to finance wind projects.

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20 Comments

Frederick Colbourne
May 13, 2016 at 10:48 PM

The public is easily misled about the technical feasibility of wind power.
Even the 40% renewable energy the Danes now generate is feasible only because their population is so small (5.7 million) and they can draw power when needed from the grids of other countries.

“Robust connection between Norway’s hydro turbines and West Denmark’s wind turbines holds the key to successful exploitation of wind for Denmark, and the German and Swedish connections are nearly as important.”

Alledging conspiracy is a
piss poor comeback by any
standards.
Oh wait, the piss poor denial effort also alledges conspiracy.
Wonder how many denialists
drift from NASA lies about climate to NASA lies about moon landing?

What does the moon landing have to do with climate change? This is simply an appeal to authority. Keep believing as you’re told, servant.

Li D
May 17, 2016 at 7:18 AM

Hahahahaha.
I believe what i understand. And continually challenge my
understandings.
This makes for little stability,
but also conversly, a continually
clarified outlook.
Im quite content with the tradeoff.

> Danes have paid billions in taxes and fees to support wind
> turbines, which has caused electricity prices to skyrocket
> even as the price of actual electricity has decreased. Now,
> green taxes make up 66 percent of Danish electricity bills.
> Only 15 percent of electricity bills went to energy generation.

Before coming to a final conclusion here, it would pay to know what “green taxes” are, and where that money is going. If only 15% of the bill is going to energy production, why are the “green taxes” so high?

John Macdonell
May 14, 2016 at 6:04 PM

“Green taxes” may equal “general revenue taxes”. Agreed that more research is wanting here.

– In Ontario, with limited economic hydro and expensive storage, it is mathematically impossible to achieve low CO2 emissions at reasonable electricity prices without nuclear generation.

Bernd_Harzog
March 12, 2017 at 7:42 PM

When you can make wind power work 24×7 (even when the wind is not blowing) and solar power work 24X7 (even when the sun is not shining) or when you have battery technology that can span the gaps, then wind and solar will be cost competitive with traditional power generation.

Until then you need to double pay for electricity. Once for the clean electricity that is available when the wind blows and the sun shines, and once again for the backup energy (powered by fossil fuels or nuclear) that is available all of the time.

Paying twice for electricity is what makes renewable sources so expensive.